Monday, July 14, 2008

Burr In At "NASCAR Now"

Apparently, someone convinced the ironman to take a day off. It will be veteran news anchor Ryan Burr stepping-in tonight to host the one hour roundtable edition of NASCAR Now. Allen Bestwick is actually on vacation.

Burr will be joined by Ray Evernham, Boris Said and Mike Massaro on the panel. Burr has come a long way since moving over from ESPNEWS to host NASCAR Now regularly this season. He has a fast pace and keeps things moving. He also asks good questions.

He will need to do just that as the news is breaking that Ryan Newman is officially out at Penske. This sets the table for an announcement of Newman joining Stewart/Haas Racing and possibly bringing UPS on as a sponsor. Burr is going to have his hands full today.

Bestwick and Infield Studio Partner Brad Daugherty are also going to take a day off this weekend as ESPN hosts the Nationwide Series from Gateway. Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will handle the pre and post-race content from the booth. Thanks to our friends at ESPN for this update. NASCAR Now airs at 5:30PM Eastern and again at 9PM Pacific Time.

Steve Byrnes is back with Michael Waltrip and Chad Knaus on This Week in NASCAR over on SPEED. They will be previewing and then reviewing. With the next Sprint Cup race two weeks away at The Brickyard, it should be interesting to see what they choose to preview.

TWIN is on at 8PM for one hour and then repeats head-to-head against NASCAR Now at 9PM Pacific Time. There will be full columns up immediately after each show for your comments and opinion. Please feel free to comment on this post in advance of the shows. Just click on the COMMENTS button, the rule for posting are on the right side of the main page.

John--I'm probably reading too much into it but I wonder if AB is sitting out next weekend's Nationwide race to give ESPN another chance to see Punch at handle the host duties, and if they like what they see, maybe swap AB and Punch for the in the booth announcing and infield studio hosting roles for Cup races. Any insights?

All I know is the official ESPN PR release had Bestwick hosting on Monday and also at Gateway in the infield. This would be the week to take off, because there is no Cup race and ESPN's Cup coverage begins the week following.

Punch is probably going to stay, but ESPN has typically made high-profile changes during the off-season. Last year they made us wait for a long time to announce the new line-ups.

Breaking news also mentioned in the other comments that Budweiser was bought last night and that issue should be discussed on the show by Ray Evernham. The show should have room to discuss both topics today.

I am looking forward to TWIN. Great to have Chad Knaus on the show when the 48 car was at the center of the drama.

I rarely watch NascarNow but will tune in tonight to see coverage of the Newman switch, since TWIN rarely mentions breaking news. Personally, I don't care for Newman one bit and I think it is very interesting that he is announcing his leaving before he has his next ride fully lined up.... unless an announcement is imminent. Boy, I hope he doesn't go with Stewart.

I realize TWIN's format is "backwards" but I like it and look forward to the show every week. NNow I only watch when there is a particular off-track story of interest.